The Best of SXSW 2019

SXSW has become a 9 day mecca for the world’s biggest brands and insiders to demonstrate ingenuity, creativity and big ideas. Below we’ve chosen some of our favourite events and experiential activations from the festival:

1. HBO – Game Of Thrones

At this years SXSW festival, HBO created an immersive experience to promote the final season of the hit show, Game Of Thrones. But there’s a twist! In a bid to tackle the worldwide blood shortage in conjunction with the American Red Cross, attendees of the experience are being asked “Will you bleed for the throne”. This in essence makes the activation a blood drive, where fans of the show can be immersed in the Kingdoms of Westeros and famous scenes from the show. Fans can donate blood there and then.

At this moment in time there are not a lot of people who have neither heard of or used the Bumble dating app! They are coming in strong at this years SXSW festival with an activation that they have aptly named “The Hive”. Aside from giving people the tools to develop relationships and connections, they are hosting mentoring and breakout sessions. They were also hosting a K9 friendly party where Bumble users can go to take that all important photo with a cute dog for their profile.

This is more of an exhibition than an activation, but it still gets quite the reaction. This is the sixth time the Donald Trump Presidential Twitter Library has been rolled out, but 2019 is it’s debut at SXSW. This as you can probably decipher from the title is a framed collection of Tweets from the leader of the free world, President Donald Trump.

The President’s tweets, in all their glory, are on display at the Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library at the #SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” dives into President Trump’s Twitter feuds and highlights old favorites. pic.twitter.com/0V9cwatGMu

A local Austin Bar got a bit of a facelift this week as social media giant and official sponsor of the festival Snapchat moved into the space and renamed it “The Snap House” show off their latest innovation “Snap Kit”. Inside, live demos and talks helped guests to understand how to get the most out of the app and achieve cut through in this crowded world of content.

The good folks over at Bose created a lot of chatter around SXSW with their Sunglasses – Headphone hybrid with inbuilt AR technology. The company says that the new technology will allow the user to listen to music and still be completely aware of what’s happening around them. Users will also be able to link the AR head motion sensor to the GPS function on their mobile devices to fully immerse themselves in their surroundings all the while remaining connected to the outside world. They are planning a full global retail launch in May.